SEC Media Days primer: five key storylines after a busy offseason
Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the Paste BN NETWORK's newsletter on SEC sports. Look for this newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Today, senior national college football writer Matt Hayes takes over:
There has never been a busier offseason in college sports, and it now officially has bled into the summer.
Talkin’ season has suddenly become negotiation’ season.
NIL deals and an already botched NCAA Clearinghouse. Revenue sharing and future College Football Playoff formats.
It’s enough to make us beg for the wildly inconsistent ways of the CFP selection committee, and those confusing and confounding Tuesday nights in November when one poor soul must face the music to explain why in the world Indiana is deep in the CFP race.
But we’ll start next week with the annual circus that is SEC Media Days, and five key storylines to watch.
1. The race to December
Not the race to the CFP, the sprint (or slog) to Dec. 1 − the deadline for the SEC and Big Ten to agree on the new CFP format beginning with the 2026 season.
Expect SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to clearly define where the league presidents and coaches sit on the format for the projected 16-team field: the 5-11 model that includes automatic bids to the four Power conference and highest-ranked Group of Six conference champions, and 11 at-large bids.
If the SEC’s presidents were interested in the 4-4-2-2-1-3 model preferred by the Big Ten, the format and contract would already be set.
Instead, there’s more public bickering and negotiating. SEC coaches said in May they were in favor of the 5-11 format, and the Big 12 announced this week it favors 5-11. Meanwhile, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in April his conference could get behind the 5-11 format.
The only conference not publicly supportive of the 5-11 is the Big Ten, which wants four automatic bids from the 4-4-2-2-1-3 format. That model gives the Big Ten and SEC four guaranteed bids to the field, and two each to the ACC and Big 12.
One more guaranteed bid would go to the highest-ranked Group of Six conferences, leaving three at-large bids. Of those three, Notre Dame automatically qualifies if it’s ranked among the top 16 teams at the end of the season.
2. The coronation of Arch
He doesn’t want it, and frankly, doesn’t think he deserves it. But Arch Manning is the face of the SEC – and maybe college football – as the 2025 season begins.
He has started all of two meaningless games as quarterback at Texas, both against overmatched opponents the Longhorns easily dispatched. He looked lost in the one significant moment (a home loss to Georgia last season) in his two years at Texas.
But it’s the Manning name, and the Texas brand and the 2023 No.1 overall recruit attached to his resume that holds more weight than anything else. Vegas has him as the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has done his best to corral the hype.
It’s not working.
Manning will be the most followed player or coach at the annual event since Johnny Manziel in 2013. He’ll also try to accomplish what his famous uncles (Payton and Eli) combined to do only once in seven seasons as full-time starters in the SEC: Win the conference.
3. The conference of quarterbacks
Manning isn’t the only headlining quarterback and isn’t the only Heisman candidate at the position.
Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), John Mateer (Oklahoma), LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina), Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt), DJ Lagway (Florida) and Marcel Reed (Texas A&M) all have legitimate chances to be part of the Heisman ceremonies in New York City.
Then there’s Austin Simmons of Ole Miss, whose singular point of reference in 2024 is a pressure-packed touchdown drive against the same Georgia defense that made Manning look like a high schooler.
Don’t be shocked if at least two from the aforementioned group are Heisman finalists.
4. Get ready for Grubb
He isn’t one of the 16 head coaches in the SEC, but Ryan Grubb will be one of the hottest topics of the week.
More to the point: Can Grubb, Alabama’s new offensive coordinator and coach Kalen DeBoer’s right hand man for much of his coaching career, find and develop a quarterback at Alabama?
Earlier this spring, DeBoer named Ty Simpson first in line to replace Jalen Milroe. Washington transfer Austin Mack and freshman Keelon Russell are also competing for the job, and there’s little doubt one of the top three most talented teams in college football still has a question at the most important position on the field.
The Tide dominated the CFP when it was a four-team event but couldn’t make the postseason tournament in DeBoer’s first season after it expanded to 12. The problem: a lack of consistency and efficiency in the pass game, where Grubb is one of the game’s elite quarterback coaches.
5. New on the block
They won seven games in 2024. They beat Alabama, should’ve beaten Missouri and could’ve beaten Texas.
And then there’s Diego Pavia, the pint-sized rock of energy who willed Vanderbilt to its first bowl win (and first winning season) since 2013. Coach Clark Lea says this is his best team in five years in Nashville, and that the Commodores can match the rest of the league on the lines of scrimmage.
It’s all setting up for what could be Vanderbilt’s breakout season, and first threat in the SEC race since 2012-13 ― and back-to-back nine-win seasons under coach James Franklin.
Just how confident is Vandy? Pavia last month called out Alabama on a national podcast, declaring the Commodores have the talent to beat the Tide again. Something that hasn’t happened in back-to-back seasons since 1955-56.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for Paste BN Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.